A huge thank you to Gill Thackray for her guest blog that shares five simple but effective tools for boosting confidence.

Confidence – the elusive holy grail?

Confidence – the elusive ‘holy grail’. We all know we should build our confidence but the sticking point is knowing exactly how to do that. We know it when we see it but how do we actually create it?

Confidence encompasses everything from our behaviour and our body language to how we communicate. We all know someone who has it in bucket loads, they effortlessly exude it, but take a closer look and you’ll see that their seemingly ‘effortless’ confidence is something that you can study, learn, practice and perfect. These five simple but effective tools will have you well on your way to feeling, looking and sounding confident regardless of the situation in which you find yourself.

5 steps to boost confidence

1. Develop self-efficacy
This is the belief that you will succeed and that you can achieve your goals. To develop this, work out exactly what you want to achieve and then:
create mastery experiences where you’re setting and achieving goals, not necessarily the first time you try, remember it’s a learning experience
find vicarious experiences – observe others’ achievements and work out (or ask them) how they got there. This will shorten your learning curve. If they can do it, you can too
create a support network of people to be your own personal cheerleaders and encourage you
Think about how you manage your reactions to stress, view setbacks and stress in a positive light, it’s all learning rather than ‘throwing in the towel’.

2. Adopt a growth mindset
Recognise that life is a learning curve and that any changes you want to make to your confidence levels will require hard work and effort. When you try but ‘fail’, treat each setback as information that you can use the next time round to help refine your skills.

3. Play to your strengths
Work out what you are good at and emphasise these skills. Try a ‘strengths assessment’ to find out where your true strengths lie and then use them to your advantage.

4. Monitor your self-talk
Listen to that small (or big) voice that narrates every time you try something new. If it’s a negative, ask yourself, “where’s the evidence for that?” or “is that 100% true?” Rewire your brain by making a conscious effort to find evidence that suggests you canrather than you can’t.

5. Set yourself SMART goals
It sounds obvious but it’s hard to hit a target that you can’t see. Identify the changes you want to make and then start small and build up to bigger challenges. As you work your way up to larger goals your competence and your confidence will increase along the way.

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